The Assassin's Weakness

Chapter 9

Paityn's POV:

I quickly walked down the steps of the church to the side of the road and raised my hand to call for a cab. The first two just drove right past me even though they had their 'on duty' light on. That always irritates me. If you have it set to let pedestrians know that you are available then stop! Don't just drive past!

Finally one stopped and I was able to get in and tell the driver my address. I was really dreading going back home at the moment. Two things can happen and only one of them I'm hoping for. One, Isaiah isn't home but only because he didn't come home last night. I would actually prefer that one because then he won't know that I was out all night myself. I'm not ready yet to tell him what happened last night. Even if the fact that he didn't come home means he was probably out with some other woman, I think right now that is still the better option.

Or, he could be at work, even though it is New Year's day, but that would just mean he probably came home and then left and will know that I wasn't home. I would then have to answer to him when he came home because he's not the type to forget. The second option would be, he is home and I will have to come up with something to tell him the moment I walk into the apartment.

The taxi pulled up to the front of my building and I paid him before getting out. I looked up at the floor that my apartment would be on as if I was hoping to tell if he was home or not even though our apartment is in the back of the building and not visible from the road. I took a deep breath and walked into the building and up to my door. I straightened out my dress and hoped my hair didn't look like I had just crawled out of bed.

I slowly put the key into the door and ever so slowly opened it. I tried not to let the door squeak as it opened but I couldn't stop it. I looked around and didn't see anyone in the living area and then turned to shut the door.

"Where the f**k have you been?" I heard a very angry Isaiah behind me suddenly, causing me to jump, yelp, and turn around holding my chest.

"s**t, Isaiah! You scared the crap out of me." I snapped at him, hoping that maybe this would keep his mind off of the reason why I was just walking in the door.

"I scared you? What about me? You never came home last night after some man had your phone! I tried to call you several times!" He started to yell at me.

"No, you didn't," I told him even though I wouldn't really know because that jerk broke my phone last night.

"I didn't what?" He yelled at me as if I was delusional.

"You didn't call me," I told him hoping that I wasn't wrong.

"Like hell, I didn't! All it did was go to your voicemail."

Shit! He may have actually called my phone! I quickly started looking through my purse and then suddenly looked up at him.

"Crap, I forgot! Some drunk i***t, right before the ball dropped knocked the phone out of my hand right before I was going to call you and it fell and broke and then got stepped on." I told him, making up the first excuse that I could come up with even though it wasn't completely false.

"You mean after he spoke into your phone?" He said glaring at me as if he knew I was lying.

"That still doesn't tell me where the f**k you were all night!" He then shouted after I didn't respond, and walked a little closer to me.

I could see how angry he was. I really don't blame him. I wasn't expecting to not come home. I had full intentions of coming home, it just didn't happen the way I had planned. I didn't exactly expect to walk into that hunk of a man. No! I did not just think that!

"Paityn Mary Thompson! Answer me!" He said getting even angrier with me and causing me to jump a little.

I'm not sure I've ever seen him this angry before. We've been together for a total of six years and I think this is the angriest he has ever been and my stupid drunk ass from last night caused this.

"I stayed at Becca's after the party." I blurted out another lie that is probably going to come back and bite me in the ass later.

"Becca? From work?" He asked, not really believing me.

"Yes, Becca from work."

"But you don't like her." He said and glared at me.

"Ah, right, but we were both really drunk and she lives close by. I just crashed over there." I told him but he looked at me as if he suspected something.

I know I should tell him what really happened and I hate the idea of lying to him but I'm just not ready. I can't tell him when he's already this pissed off at me. It's just not the right time and I just need some time to come to terms with what I did as well before I go and confess to him. I just hope this is something that we can work out and put behind us.

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Anthony's POV:

My plane landed in Arizona about two hours ago. I already have a flight scheduled for tomorrow evening to head to the UK. Apparently, this McLin guy is trying to kill his daughter. I find that sickening but that's just the way it is sometimes. I don't know anything about his situation, or why he is doing what he is doing, I just do what I am paid to do.

He called me shortly after I got off the plane throwing a fit because this girl won't die. I guess he tried to poison her, no not poison her, give her seafood to cause a deadly allergic reaction and she lived. I got tired of hearing him talk about it so I stopped him and told him to tell me the purpose of his call. This phone is not for casual conversations and I'm not his friend. This is work only and I wasn't going to talk to him about his anger with his daughter for the next hour. He wants me to come to the UK. More specifically, Hunstanton, which is where this Nash and Brooke live.

I'm supposed to kidnap her and take her to some abandoned house. Well, we'll see about that. Getting Nash's wife the first time may have been easy and holding him back may have been like a walk in the park at that time but you hear about the different mafia leaders in this world. I know that he isn't the same man he once was almost four years ago when I first met him. I don't believe this will be as easy as the first time which means, he's probably going to be more prepared and McLin will be waiting on me to fulfill my end of the deal, telling me that I have no idea how long this will take. Which means my cost for this job went up. If it's going to take me a month to fulfill, then I need to be compensated for the extra time. He doesn't care, as long as she is killed in the end regardless.

His payment should hit my account by the time my plane ends and then I will start my job of watching her for the perfect moment to snatch her. Kidnapping isn't really something that I do, but I've done them often enough to have a price for them. This isn't my specialty. I'm technically a sniper. I would much rather set up my equipment somewhere and then just wait for the perfect time for when the target is scheduled to be at the place I am watching. Then, I take out the target, pack my things, and disappear.

I've already gone around the town and found the courthouse and looked for a place to set my equipment up tomorrow. I also got some dinner and then came back to the hotel. I pulled out my phone and studied the photo that he sent me. There didn't look to be anything special about this guy. He was around his early twenties I would say. He witnessed the killing and claims he knows where the dead body is.

He looks like he would have been a good kid in school. The right family, the right friends. Just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed the wrong crime. I put that phone away and pulled out my personal phone and opened up the pictures. I have several in here of Paityn that I have taken while I watched her. I really need to just stop trying to get her. She's just like this boy that I'm going after tomorrow afternoon. She's a good woman and even though normally I wouldn't really care, I can't be the reason why she leaves her husband, even if he is an ass to her and more than likely cheating on her.

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It's the day the target is expected to be at court. I make sure I pack everything I have and put it in my rental car. I then put on gloves that go all the way up my arms, covering any exposed skin. I put on the mask that keeps me from losing any hair while I'm in here. Basically, I'm fully covered to keep any prints, skin cells, or hair from getting left behind. I then go through and clean and sanitize everything in the room, including taking the sheets from the bed and sending them to the laundry so they can get mixed in with all the others. I then go through and sweep the mattress with a heavy-duty hand sweeper. I wipe down every surface in the room including a full clean of the bathroom. I send bleach down the drains and wipe any hair out of the drains in my shower.

Once the room has been thoroughly cleaned of anything that could lead back to me, I pay for my room with a disposable card that had just the exact amount on it for my room. This will get shredded later. Now, it's time to head to the location that I scoped out the night before and get everything set up.

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I like to position myself as far away from where the target is going to be as I can. Most snipers position themselves around 800-1000 yards from their target. I, like to go farther if the area allows me to. The farther I am away, the harder it is for them to track where my location was. In this case, I was able to get almost 10 blocks away which is approximately 1000 yards but that's just a rough estimate. I didn't exactly count how many yards each city block is and some are bigger than others. This town is set up like a grid and the way it worked, I was able to find one spot at that distance. There was only one location that had a building this far away that was at the end of the road that ended right in front of the courthouse. It was a prime location! A sniper's dream!

The building was tall too. Taller than most of them around it which will give my angle of shot hard to figure out because it won't match any nearby building's height. This is also far enough away that even if the investigators would put a dummy in place to try to use a laser to find the location, it won't make it this far. It will also be difficult to get the dummy in the right spot altogether to even get it right. The farther away is just better. Plus, you use the right bullet and there won't be anything left of the target's head. There are just too many variables involved.

I make sure to wear a basic, common jacket that can be bought in this town that also covers all my tattoos and a pair of driving gloves to prevent fingerprints. I also take out all of my piercings and take the makeup that makeup artists use in movies to cover every tattoo on my neck and face. I wear a heat that covers enough of my head that the tattoos on the left of my skull are not visible. Basically, cover everything that makes me look unique if I were to be caught on any camera. I keep my head low the whole time through the building to stay off of the cameras.

I get to the roof and quickly put my sunglasses on and walk to the edge where I will be setting up my equipment. I pull out my JTF2 sniper rifle from its case and set up the tripod. I loaded it with a bullet that explodes on impact. I get it into position and then get the scope set for the distance. It didn't take me long before I had sight of the 15 steps in front of the courthouse in view. I looked at my watch to see what time it was and saw that I had about a half-hour till his expected arrival.

This is where patience becomes your best friend. I've been known to wait half a day or more just to get my target. I position myself as comfortably as I can behind my rifle and I just watch through the scope. I do not dare to move and draw any attention to myself. Most people do not look at the top of a building but just in case someone does happen to look up, I don't want to appear to be moving and to alert anyone of my presence.

While I waited, I tried to keep my mind occupied but every time I did, the only thing that came into my mind was Paityn. I honestly couldn't stop thinking about the way she looked laying on my bed naked like that. I know I told her that I didn't see anything but I didn't want her to know that I saw her delectable ass. All I could do was imagine myself thrusting into her and squeezing those cheeks hard with my hands. I wanted to feel her walls around my member as I hit her deep and made her cry out my name in pleasure.

Wait, my name? Do I really want her to know my name? I've never told anyone my name since I was in grade school. Not since I trained to become a sniper in the army. The army wasn't really something I wanted but considering my childhood, it was the only thing I could do to get myself out of trouble. Now, my army tattoo is surrounded by several others and is easily missed if you weren't looking for it or knew where it was. Those days were the only days that I was out of trouble. Afterward is when my life really turned into what it is now and I don't regret any of it. It has made me the killer that I am today.

My mind traveled back to the present when I saw movement in my scope. People were starting to arrive at the courthouse for the upcoming trial. I zoomed out so I could get a view of the entire area. That's when I saw the police cars appear and several policemen crowded around the door where the witness was going to come out of. They were going to make this difficult.

I'm not a fan of killing bystanders. I do everything I can to not have collateral damage but I will do it if I have to in order to get my target and I have in the past. I have killed innocents in order to unblock the target that I was going for and this won't be any different.

The witness stepped out of the car and that's when I saw the way I was going to get him. They may be doing what they can to block him and protect him but they must not have thought of the fact that he was taller than some of the police officers. Half of his head was visible and that was what I was going to go for. A very difficult shot because if I miss, they will be alerted and I will have to abort the mission and disappear. Missing is not an option and almost never happens unless I intentionally miss it.

I zoomed in till I had what I wanted and I waited for the perfect moment. The one and only moment that is needed for the kill. My finger was on the trigger and the moment that perfect moment happened, I shot.

The top of the witness's head blew off on impact, ensuring that the exact direction of the shot will be undetectable. There's no way he would have survived that so I quickly packed up my gear and I took off for the airport to head to the UK for my next job.